The Guns Of Navarone

1 9 6 1 (UK)

Gregory Peck's stalwart band of Blighty's finest heroes risk life and limb to destroy huge German gun emplacements threatening Allied ships in the Aegean and rescue a garrison of stranded soldiers. 

The six-man commando team consists of mountaineer Captain Mallory (Peck), humanitarian explosive’s expert Corporal Miller (Niven), Greek resistance fighter Andrea Stravos (Quinn), British Major Franklin (Quayle), young marksman Private Pappadimos (Darren) and ruthless killer CPO Brown (Baker).

Meeting them along the way are resistance leader Maria (Papas), who is Pappadimos' older sister, and Anna (Scala), a beautiful Greek girl who was tortured by the Germans. There's little love lost between Mallory and Stavros in their ongoing conflict over leadership, especially when it becomes known that there's a traitor in their midst. Maria weeds out the traitor, but there are still those guns to take care of.

A bloody hand-to-hand skirmish between the good guys and the Nazis, an enormous tidal wave, and scenes of heart-stopping tension ensue as our heroes brave the elements whilst scaling a treacherous sea-facing cliff.

Derring-do adventure at its finest, this tale of heroism and good old death-or-glory courage was absolutely dripping with 60's post-war patriotism. The Guns of Navarone has a righteous cause, a fiendish foe, impossible odds and will have you pulling imaginary salutes to your commanding officer as the film reaches its glorious finale.

Filmed on location in Rhodes by veteran director J. Lee Thompson, and noteworthy for Bill Warrington’s Oscar-winning special effects, Carl Foreman adapted his screenplay from Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel. There was a less than successful 1977 sequel, Force Ten From Navarone.

TRIVIA NOTE
Future Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant (a former wrestler) body-doubled for Anthony Quinn during filming.